Dad Grabs Son’s Wrist to Check His Pulse but Loses Him Soon After — His Last Words Still Haunt Him

• A dad can’t stop thinking about his son’s final moments, thinking he was somewhat to blame.
• His wife wasn’t at home when their son passed, which consumed her with regret.
• The grieving dad couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was something more he could have done and wondered if he should have done things differently.

Losing a child is a parent’s worst nightmare. It’s not something they ever imagine happening in their lifetime, as they’d want to see their children thrive and succeed.

Two weeks after a man lost his teenage son, he still couldn’t stop thinking about the circumstances leading to that moment. He tried everything he could to erase the scenario from his head, but nothing seemed to work.

The man was the first to admit that he hated explaining how his 16-year-old son died. He’s had to tell many people about it but always omitted one particular detail.

He was the firstborn child of the man’s wife. “I adopted him at the age of 7… he was my best friend for so many years. I loved him as much as my other two boys we had later,” the man admitted.

For years, the boy and his adoptive father grew up the best of friends. Only when the boy turned into a teenager did their relationship dynamics change.

The man didn’t think much of it – he knew that children distanced themselves during their teenage years. So he loved him from afar and still tried to be there as much as he could.

One day, his wife headed out of town. She said goodbye to her sons at around 10 a.m., and their 16-year-old was doing errands around the house.

The dad worked from home and was on a call from when his wife left until around 11:30 a.m. He saw their 16-year-old son when he left his office and told him he was headed out to buy lunch. The boy nodded without saying anything.

At around 12:20 p.m., the dad arrived home with their food. His son came out of his room to grab his takeout box but looked wobbly. The dad noticed his son’s eyes couldn’t focus on him well. He was also mumbling and once even stumbled as he walked.

“What are you on? Tell me what you took,” the dad demanded. His son acted strangely; he thought it was because he had taken a particular substance.

His 16-year-old son answered with nonsense. “I didn’t steal anything! I bought it at the computer store this morning.” He added, “Oh yeah, I’m going for a drive later if you want to come.”

The dad knew his son was ultimately out of it. He grabbed his son’s wrist to check his pulse and realized it was much faster than it should have been. His son yelled while his dad checked his pulse. He asked why he was being restrained.

It was then that the worried dad took his son into his bedroom. He sat him on the bed and once again calmly asked what he had taken.

The dad asked his son to show him the pills he took so he could determine whether or not they were in trouble. Then the boy pointed to a plastic bag on the floor, saying, “Everything I stole is in there.”

The man checked the bag, thinking he would find pills. To his surprise, it contained the school supplies they purchased just the day prior.

The man realized that his son couldn’t have been doing drugs. He was a good kid, and he stayed home the entire summer. “Why the [expletive] am I accusing him like this?” he realized.

Suddenly, it all made sense to him. The dad realized his son was having a stroke.

The father immediately called 911 and asked for emergency medical services to come quickly. While on the phone, he asked his son to smile at him. He did. His son smiled and even laughed. His face wasn’t drooping, and he understood what his dad said.

While waiting for EMS to arrive, he asked his son to raise his hands. Again, the boy laughed and said, “raise the roof,” as he lifted his arms.

When the boy tried to sit back down, he wobbled. He began to have seizures, and the dad put him in a recovery position. Throughout that time, he held his son’s hand. Then the son said his last words as he tightly squeezed his dad’s hands:

“Oh My God! Why is he in our house?!”

The man recalls his son looking “up over my shoulder” as he yelled this. Gutted, he assured him that no one was there and that it was just him.

“It’s just me buddy, it’s daddy. I am here for you,” the dad assured his dying son. The boy was scared. His last words were fearful and full of terror.

The paramedics came after a few minutes. The boy was still breathing when they arrived but suffered several more seizures.

During one of the seizures, the boy stopped breathing, and his heart stopped. They took him to the hospital, but by 1:50 p.m., the boy had passed away.

His mother couldn’t forgive herself for not being there during her son’s passing. The dad also couldn’t forgive himself for being unable to help and for accusing the boy of taking drugs.

The boy’s cause of death remains pending, but he tested negative for drugs, save for a small amount of painkiller used to treat his shoulder a day before his death.

The grieving parents wonder how everything happened so fast and why it had to happen in the first place. It will take a while to move past the horrifying experience, especially now that their beloved firstborn is no longer with them.

In a similarly interesting story, a mom was grieving the loss of her son when she noticed a detail on his body during the funeral that proved he was still alive. Click here to read all about it.